San Francisco luxurious tower nonetheless sinking at the same time as engineers work on $100m repair | San Francisco
The infamous sinking luxury San Francisco skyscraper is still sinking, even amid a $ 100 million project to fix the problem.
Work on reinforcing the foundation of the Millennium Tower in downtown the city halted this week after engineers discovered the building had sunk an inch in the months since work began. Engineers worked to strengthen the tower’s foundation to prevent additional tilting and sinking.
The 58-story tower, the tallest residential building in San Francisco, has made joking comparisons to the Leaning Tower of Pisa because it had fallen 18 inches by 2014 and sloped 14 inches to the west. The skyscraper opened to fanfare five years earlier, with all 419 units selling out quickly and having high profile residents like former San Francisco 49ers player Joe Montana and Giants outfielder Hunter Pence.
All of the buildings settle in their foundations, the Guardian previously reported, but the tower should sink between just 4 “and 6” in its lifetime. The issue sparked a legal battle between homeowners, the developer of the building and a neighboring construction project. At that time, the property developer Millennium Partners blamed the construction of the Transbay transit center for the demise and referred to eroding soil.
Pedestrians inspect cracks near the sinking Millennium Tower in San Francisco in 2016. Photo: Beck Diefenbach / Reuters / Reuters
“This litigation exposed many issues with the development of this particular building,” Niall McCarthy, an attorney who represents a group of homeowners, told the Guardian in 2019. “It will be a roadmap for other downtown developments in what is to come avoid is. This is a unique situation that we will never see again in San Francisco. “
A confidential settlement reached last year included a $ 100 million plan to repair the building and compensate homeowners in the building for estimated losses.
In May, crews began work on the perimeter pile upgrade project to install 52 140,000 pound concrete piles to anchor the building 250 feet underground. Shortly after starting work, however, the sinking and tipping accelerated; The building now has a 22-inch slope, NBC Bay Area reported.
A spokesman for the Millennium Tower Association told the San Francisco Chronicle that the building was safe, but work on the project was being suspended out of caution while it worked to better understand the problem. The association did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Guardian.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
